


You take my breath away

by Outdoorsy



Category: RuPaul's Drag Race (US) RPF
Genre: AAA Girls, Alternate Universe - Hospital, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:14:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27207943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Outdoorsy/pseuds/Outdoorsy
Summary: Working as a doctor is more exhausting than Alaska ever expected. Having a co-worker, who hates her, even more so. Dealing with the best housemates, who have a crush on each other but won't admit it adds some spice to the mixture. And suddenly becoming a patient herself surely doesn't help with this mess.Hospital AU
Relationships: Alaska (Drag Race)/Katya Zamolodchikova, Courtney Act | Shane Jenek/Willam Belli
Comments: 26
Kudos: 37





	1. Chapter 1

As soon as Courtney saw her face she froze. “You look half dead.” She commented, her voice laced with worry as she took in Alaska’s pale complexion.

“I’m fine!” Alaska yawned and made her way to the coffee machine nestled in one of the corners of the kitchen. With her eyes still half closed she pushed a few buttons and leaned against the fridge while waiting for the elixir of life to pour into her cup.

“I was on call yesterday and still have some sleep to catch up on.” She continued while watching the brown liquid drip into her cup and simultaneously avoiding Courtney’s sceptic stare. Finally, her friend went back to chopping up fruits for her morning smoothie. If Alaska was being honest, she felt like she probably looked. She was six months into her residency as a doctor in internal medicine and sleep was a rare good in her life. Courtney must know the struggle as she was in the same position, but somehow the lack of decent sleep didn’t seem to affect her quite as hard. While she powered up the smoothie-maker, Alaska sat down at their kitchen table, her long fingers clasped around the mug of steaming coffee (or milk with a little of coffee flavor as their third housemate Willam called it). Courtney’s gaze had softened slightly as she sat down next to Alaska and placed her breakfast smoothie in front of her. Then, before Alaska could even process what was happening, she had switched it with Alaska’s coffee.

“Drink this instead, you seriously look like you could need some vitamins.” Alaska wasn’t sure if any vitamins could make the dark circles beneath her eyes vanish and stubbornly, she pushed the glass away.

“Can I have my coffee back?” She whined and angled for the cup Courtney was holding out of her reach. She gave up after a few seconds and timidly took a small sip of the concoction in front of her, while Courtney kept on lecturing her on the benefits of good food and enough sleep.

“Are you sure you’re not coming down with something?” She asked as Alaska shivered slightly. Before Alaska could answer a hand was snaked around her back while the another one palmed her forehead. She flinched slightly and turned around to face the person, who had sneaked up from behind her.

Willam ignored her and turned to Courtney. “She feels a bit cold and clammy, but not feverish.” With a yawn she sat herself down next to Courtney and took the cup of coffee from her hands to take a small sip. Courtney slapped her hand. “Get your own!” And Alaska was thankful for the distraction. Willam was the oldest among them, a third-year resident in general surgery, and known for being able to wake up just in time to snatch some of Courtney’s breakfast. But she was also the most observing and Alaska was thankful that she could not read her mind right now as she was battling a growing headache.

Alaska turned to Courtney, took another swing of the smoothie while shuddering slightly. “You know that I’m bad with mornings.” Courtney didn’t seem convinced, but turned back to sipping Alaska’s coffee and typing away on her phone.

After finishing about half of her drink Alaska got up. “I have to get going, I have to present a patient at ward rounds today and I don’t want to.” She drawled on the last words, a slight whine added to her voice and the others laughed.

“You’ll be ok!” Courtney offered half convinced, but all of them knew that Alaska’s supervisor was known for not being all too gentle on her residents.

“Don’t die!” Willam offered with a grin.

When she reached her locker, the headache had developed to an ever-pounding sensation behind her temples and Alaska decided that this was the time to take an Advil before facing her team. She swallowed one tablet dry and changed into the sterile blue scrubs the hospital provided for nurses and doctors alike. For the day she didn’t feel like being mistaken for a nurse at every step, so she added a white coat that also provided additional warmth to her outfit. While she was pulling her long hair into a messy ponytail, the door of the locker room opened again and Alaska froze for a second. The other resident from her team, Katya, had entered, but didn’t even offer a “hello” as she hurried past Alaska and to her own locker.

Katya was an enigma to Alaska. She was easily one of the most attractive residents in the hospital and Alaska would probably let her do anything to her and her in a broom closet, but her personality was- well- special. Also, Alaska was convinced that Katya hated her. On her very first day of work she had accidentally spilled her coffee on Katya’s phone and Katya had insisted that Alaska bought her a new one despite the old one working just fine after the accident (in fact, Alaska was using it now). Ever since then Katya had been trying to show Alaska how a proper resident and doctor worked, not by pointing it out directly, but by proving to their attending physician, that she was better at everything. Whenever Alaska didn’t know how to treat a patient, Katya knew; when Alaska couldn’t get an i.v. line or a drainage line in, Katya did it; when Alaska’s therapy failed, Katya took over the patient; when Alaska didn’t know an answer to their attending physician’s question, Katya knew it. It was frustrating on a whole different level, since Katya never bragged about it, so Alaska couldn’t hate her directly.

Still, she waited until Katya had changed and together, they hurried up to their ward, where the attending physician was already waiting. Dr. Visage was shorter than both of them, but had boobs for all three. Alaska was convinced that they could not be natural, but she would never dare ask. Nevertheless, they had proven to be a great distraction when she had to present a patient. Dr. Visage looked mildly annoyed when they hurried over to the computer where she had opened up the patients’ charts.

They flocked together around the computer and started reporting on their patients. About halfway through to Katya’s report, Alaska started wondering if Courtney had been right and she was coming down with something. The ward felt colder than she knew it was and her thoughts kept drifting off.

“Miss Thunder?” She flinched as her name was called. “Pay attention.” Dr. Visage didn’t look happy and Alaska apologized quickly, trying to focus on the charts in front of her. Katya shot her a mildly annoyed glance.

Soon enough they started seeing the patients and Alaska felt the world shifting in and out of focus while Katya and Dr. Visage talked to one of her patients. This was probably the moment she should have told them that she would rather go home and crawl back into her bed while ignoring the fact that Courtney had been right, but her pride was getting in her way, so she just shuffled to the side until her shoulder came to rest against one of the walls and tried looking fine.

And while she stumbled over the simplest words and probably seemed much dumber than she already felt, she somehow made it through the ward round. Dr. Visage didn’t look happy with her, but didn’t say anything about it. Soon enough Alaska returned to the office and started writing up reports and discharge letters. They had a lumbar puncture scheduled and usually it would have been Alaska’s turn to do it, but Visage had asked Katya to assist, maybe to show Alaska her place. She hated both of them for snatching that procedure from her, but was thankful, that she could sit down. The Advil she had taken earlier didn’t seem to be working. She felt cold and had started shivering, so she pulled the white coat closer around her shoulders to warm herself up. It took her way longer than usual to work her way through some of the discharge papers, she lost focus, had to return to the beginning of the sentence and when she finally managed to finish, she found another ten mistakes somewhere along the way.

Discharging her patients was another task, but she decided to deal with it when she had finished the paperwork. She wasn’t quite sure how far she would get, if she had to stand and walk right now. But her stubborn brain refused asking for help. Before she could come up with a solution to her problem, the door opened and Katya pranced in, a kind of victorious glow on her face. Which probably meant that the lumbar puncture had been a success. Alaska hated her for gloating.

The moment she spotted Alaska, by now leaning heavily against the wall beside her desk, Katya’s face fell. “Have you finished the discharge papers?” She asked and Alaska was glad, that she didn’t say anything about her obviously worsening health.

“Yes. I was about to go discharge them.” She started getting up, but Katya snatched the bundle of papers from her hand. “Sit down.” She half-barked. “I will take care of this, haven’t you got enough paperwork to finish?”

Alaska was about to protest, but eventually chose not to. Katya was not a very caring person and she hated Alaska, but maybe there was a heart beneath that cold exterior. She tried a small smile. “Thank you.”

Katya left with her discharge papers and Alaska decided to rest her eyes for a second before returning to work. Her headache had been continuously getting worse and just looking at the bright screen was driving sparks of pain through her brain. Just a few minutes of rest, then she would continue…

“Miss Thunder?” Immediately, Alaska knew that there was something seriously wrong and with a gasp of pure horror as she recognized the voice, she sat up. She had only meant to close her eyes for a few seconds, but must have fallen asleep. And now she was faced with Dr. Visage staring at her, an angry frown on her face. She jumped up, trying to seem busy, but knew it was futile, because she had been clearly caught in the act. Standing didn’t prove to be a good decision and the world started tilting to the right. It suddenly stopped and she was once again met with Dr. Visage’s frowning face. The hand on her shoulder, stabilizing her, felt burning hot through the thin fabric of her white coat. She was wordlessly guided back down on her chair and had never felt as small, as she was feeling now.

“I’m sorry. I…” She had no explanation for falling asleep at work and to her utter horror tears sprang to her eyes. Dr. Visage was going to kill her, or worse, fire her. Not only did she slack off and did a horrible job at ward rounds, now she even proved how lazy she was. But to her surprise, Dr. Visage’s frown seemed to soften slightly.

“You look like death warmed over.” Her voice was gentler than before, a tone Alaska had never heard from her, at least not directed at her. “If you feel sick, you need to tell someone.” There still was a certain sternness to it, but Alaska’s heartbeat slowly started to calm down again. Maybe it was a good thing that she probably looked as bad as she felt.

“I’m fine. I can still work. I’m sorry.” She tried redeeming herself, knowing that it wouldn’t work.

But Dr. Visage shook her head. “I will get someone to check you over and get you home.”

“I can get home myself…” Alaska started, but Dr. Visage only shook her head again. “You almost passed out on me just a minute ago.” It almost sounded as if she was concerned for Alaska.

Alaska felt her face light up in shame, but she knew Dr. Visage was right. She wasn’t even able to stand very well on her own, let alone walk or drive home. She was also starting to understand why the patients liked Dr. Visage that much, because she was surprisingly gentle as she helped Alaska to the couch in the corner of the room.

“Take a few days off. I don’t want you back here, before you got rid of that fever of yours.”

She bowed down, picked up the blanket that had slipped to the floor and dumped in on her lap. And without waiting for an answer or a reaction she left the room. Alaska was not quite sure if she hadn’t imagined things, but the soft blanket around her proved that there had to be some truth to what had just happened.

Now that she had blown her covers, she was really starting to feel sick. She was freezing cold and burning hot at the same time, her whole body hurt and dry coughs had crept up on her. About twenty minutes later, while she was slowly drifting back to sleep, the door banged open.

Katya had a weird expression painted on her face, a mixture of anger, worry and something Alaska’s tired brain could not quite place. She weakly blinked a few times, willing herself to focus on Katya. To her surprise Katya gave a low whistle and knelt down next to Alaska.

“Dr. Visage said you were sick, not dying.” She muttered under her breath while she started to pull the blanket away from Alaska, who was desperately hanging onto the warm fabric. Katya gently slapped her hand. “Let go. I have to check you over and you need to cool down.” Her hand was surprisingly cold against her overheating forehead.

Alaska shivered slightly as Katya snatched the blanket away from her and dropped it on the floor, then proceeded to help Alaska out of her white coat. The cold air against her exposed skin made Alaska’s chest constrict and she started coughing. Katya furrowed her brow in a concerned expression.

“I’ll be right back. You can take your temperature in the meanwhile.” She handed Alaska a thermometer and waited until she had positioned it under her tongue, before leaving the room. Alaska was still having problems progressing the concern Katya seemed to have over her when the thermometer beeped. In disbelief she stared at the numbers and decided she had rather not known. Putting numbers to it only made her feel more feverish than before. Unnoticed to her Katya seemed to have returned and snatched the thermometer from her hand. She gave another low whistle. “102.3 °F. I’m amazed that you thought you could work like this.”

She pulled her stethoscope from her pocket and knelt down in front of Alaska. Seemingly not caring for the privacy of her patient, she pushed up Alaska’s scrubs and placed the cool headpiece against her chest.

“Deep breaths.” She instructed and Alaska did as she was told, coughing occasionally. After a few seconds Katya declared. “Your lungs seem ok, but I want to do a test for influenza.” She proceeded to pull out a swab from her coat pocket. “Hold still.”

It felt like she had rammed it directly through her nose and into her brain and tears sprang to Alaska’s eyes. Katya didn’t seem to care for the discomfort of her patient and without further explanation she left the room.

In a feverish haze Alaska watched the door close and coughed again. Her chest felt tight, not a very pleasant feeling and though Katya had declared her lungs to be working just minutes ago, she felt like she didn’t get quite enough air. Also, she was still dealing with her conflicting emotions regarding Katya- her small crush on her coworker, the obvious hate Katya felt for Alaska, the sudden worry and somewhat gentle examination. Her brain was overheating and Alaska groaned quietly as she pulled the blanket over her head to shut out the world. Just seconds later it was pulled away.

“Congratulations.” Katya’s face looked quite grim. She was wearing a N95 mask and Alaska was getting a bad feeling. “You’re positive for both influenza A and B.”

Alaska tried to think of a somewhat intelligent answer, but failed. She just croaked a small “Lucky me!” and tried to hold back the tears. Being sick she got overemotional very fast and felt incredibly embarrassed to show it in front of Katya. The Russian didn’t seem to notice. “I’m going to bring you home. Can you stand and walk or do I have to get a wheelchair?” Alaska jumped to her feet and groaned as sparks exploded behind her eyes. But she was determined not to show any further weakness, though she probably had every excuse to.

“Take this!” Seemingly unfazed at Alaska’s slightly wobbly stance, Katya handed her a mask. “We don’t want you to spread that stuff all over the hospital.”  
The mere thought of infecting any of her already sick patients brought tears to Alaska’s eyes and she sank back down on the sofa, silently sobbing into her hands. This was getting too much and vanishing right there and then felt like a great solution to the problem. Tears were blurring her vision and her breath came in short gasps, as she tried to suck in enough air. “Hey.” A hand came to rest on her shoulder, but Alaska was too preoccupied to even notice or care. “Look at me.” She didn’t look at Katya. The world had once again started fading out of focus and only through the mist of her misery Alaska noticed Katya leaving. Great, now she had even scared her away. Black spots were dancing in front of her eyes and Alaska felt her body connect with something hard, as she almost welcomed the darkness.

It was once again Dr. Visage’s voice that brought her back to reality.

“I’m admitting her.” The older doctor’s face was clouded with concern as she knelt on the floor, next to Alaska. Alaska wondered for a second how she had ended up there, but couldn’t care less. “Her blood oxygen levels are too low and her fever seems to be rising.”

A mask smelling like plastic was placed over her nose and mouth and Alaska took in deep breaths as she tried to get enough oxygen in her lungs.

“Alaska, are you with us?” Dr. Visage addressed her directly as she noticed Alaska’s half open eyes. It was the first time she had used Alaska’s first name and she tried to smile under the mask. Then she remembered the question and nodded weakly. She was slowly returning to consciousness and tried to push herself up, but Dr. Visage stopped her from doing so.

“You’re really ill and I would like to keep you here for a few days.” Her tone sounded like she would not take any form of protest. “Can you tell us when you started developing symptoms?”

Even to her own ears, her voice sounded weak, but Alaska tried. She hoped Dr. Visage would notice. “I’ve had a headache since yesterday and felt ill since this morning, but I didn’t have a fever then.” She coughed again and took a few breaths before continuing. Not telling her everything would be no use, so Alaska tried to answer the question to her best avail. “During ward rounds I started to feel faint and cold.” She could feel tears once again threatening to overwhelm her.

“Do you have any preexisting conditions we should know of?” The questions helped her concentrate on the important things and kept her thoughts from spiraling. Looking up, Alaska met Katya’s eyes. They were rimmed red and she wondered if the older resident had cried. “I had mild asthma as a kid, but haven’t had an exacerbation in years.”

She once again tried to sit up and this time Dr. Visage helped her lean against the couch beside her. “Can I go home?” She asked and hated how weak she sounded. With a stern face Dr. Visage shook her head. “I want you under observation for at least 24h. When I got here your oxygen saturation was at about 89% and your symptoms are progressing quite fast for a young person.” She turned to Katya. “Will you write up an admission report? And find someone to help Miss Thunder to her room.” Katya hurried out of the room. She looked visibly shaken.

“I really want to go home.” Alaska knew that she sounded like a whiney teenager, but didn’t care. She wanted to sleep in her own bed and not be the hot gossip of the entire hospital. Dr. Visage sighed and awkwardly patted her shoulder. “Is there anyone we should call? Can anyone get you some clothes?”

“My housemates, either Courtney Act, she’s a resident in pediatrics, or Willam Belli, she’s in general surgery.” Alaska looked down and concentrated on breathing again. Even though she would never admit it, her short talk had left her out of breath. Dr. Visage nodded and got up, stepping over to the desk and dialed a number on the phone sitting on the desk. Alaska watched her talk with someone in a hushed voice and closed her eyes for a second, the events of the day slowly catching up with her.

The door opened again. “I’ll take her to her room.” Katya was talking over her head as if she didn’t care that Alaska was listening. She was about to protest and complain, but found she lacked the energy to do so. Katya knelt down next to her. “Can you get up?” She proceeded to pull Alaska upright and used her own body as a crutch for Alaska to cling on to. She smelt nice, Alaska mused, her face mushed against Katya’s chest, the oxygen mask dislodged for a second. She took a deep breath and Katya pushed her down on the wheelchair she had brought. She then pulled up the mask again so it covered Alaska’s nose and mouth.

“Do you think you can sit upright for a few minutes?” She asked, awkwardly patting Alaska’s shoulder to grab her attention. Alaska nodded. This was THE walk of shame. This was worse than any walk of shame.

When she was finally lying down on a somewhat soft bed, the mask replaced with a nose canula, she looked at Katya, who had taken a seat next to her bed, through half-lidded eyes. “I’m sorry…” She drawled on the last word. Katya looked up from the paperwork she had been filling in and shook her head.

“You’re an idiot. But I’m sorry, too.” They fell back into silence, no one sure what to say next, until the door burst open. Courtney looked as if she had run the entire way from the pediatrics’ ward, but didn’t seem to care. Her blond hair had escaped from the ponytail she had been wearing and framed her face in a bright halo.

“Alaska!” She cried out as she spotted her friend, buried under as many blankets as Alaska had been able to convince Katya to give to her. “Are you ok?” She dropped down on the floor next to Alaska’s bedside and took her face into both hands, carefully minding the tube under her nose. “I was really worried when Dr. Visage called me! What happened? Was it already this bad in the morning? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I’m fine…” Alaska started weakly, but was interrupted by Katya loudly clearing her throat. Courtney turned around as if she had only noticed the Russian by now. She cocked her head in question.

“That’s Katya.” Alaska explained and closed her eyes. Even lying down was exhausting, but telling either of the others in the room would result in another round of them fussing over her. Katya ignored her remark. “She’s not fine. She managed to catch both influenza A and B. She passed out from exhaustion and fever and didn’t get enough oxygen, so Dr. Visage admitted her as any sensible doctor would do.” Alaska felt the sting of the snide remark, but didn’t have the energy to answer.

“Lasky, you still with us?” Courtney’s hand ghosted over her cheek and she opened her eyes again. “I asked Willam to get you some clothes and stuff you need. She should be here soon.”

“Thanks!” Alaska croaked and tried a tired smile. “I’m really sorry for not listening to you.” She hated to admit that Courtney had been right all along. She once again felt tears welling up and held her breath to stop them from coming, which proved to be a horrible idea, since the oxygen monitor next to her started beeping furiously and coughs started rattling her body, vibrating in her pounding skull. Katya had jumped up and pulled Alaska up roughly on her shoulders to help her into a more upright position. The alarm finally stopped and when the coughs subsided, Alaska could see that Courtney had started crying. She hated herself with vigor for making her friend cry.

“It’s ok, Lasky!” Courtney choked out and pushed Katya aside to hug her friend. Katya looked not amused, but made way for the crying blonde. She stepped over to the monitor and started checking it over, though to Alaska it only seemed like she was trying to appear busy. After a few seconds Courtney finally let go of her and helped her lay back down after pumping up the pillows behind her back. Alaska turned her head to look at Katya.

“Thank you for helping me.” She coughed slightly and Katya frowned. “Don’t overexert yourself. It’s fine.” She turned to pick up her bag and smiled grimly. “I’ll see you tomorrow, don’t die.”

“I’ll try.” Alaska tried laughing, but ended up coughing again. Katya waited in the door, awkwardly watching Alaska and only left after she had stopped coughing.

“So…” Courtney started with a malicious grin, after the door had closed. “That’s Katya. The one you want to fuck, but who hates you… Though to me it didn’t seem like she did. It’s already hours past her shift and she stayed with you instead of going home.”

She lifted her eyebrows and wiggled them. Alaska only rolled her eyes in reply. She would rather save her energy to have that discussion a different time. Maybe when she didn’t feel like dying. The fluids and antipyretics had helped to a certain degree, but she still felt like a truck had run her over- at least three times.

“You look really sick.” Courtney commented, her voice laced with worry. “Please don’t ever do this again!” Alaska knew she was supposed to answer something, but didn’t have the energy to do so. After a few seconds of watching her friend, Courtney settled down on the chair that had been previously occupied by Katya. “I’ll wake you, when Willam shows up.” She said in a low whisper, as she noticed Alaska dozing off.

It was already dark outside when Alaska woke again. She would have loved to say that a good few hours of sleep cured everything, but she felt even worse than she had before falling asleep. She had been plagued by nightmares she couldn’t quite remember and had started feeling cold after some time. With a low groan she flicked on the light at the bedside. Her eyes hurt from the contacts she had forgotten to take out and she scrambled to sit up, to go to the bathroom. It was only after a moment that she noticed the human figure asleep on the chair in the corner.

“Willam?” She asked in a low voice, still hoarse from sleep and coughing too much. Though she didn’t want to wake her friend, she was not quite sure if she could make it to the bathroom on her own. While Willam started stirring, Alaska decided to go ahead and rid herself of the various medical appliances she was hooked up to. She turned off the infusion and screwed open the connection to the i.v. line in her hand and took off the oxygen canula and the oximeter. Suddenly the room was filled with furious beeping and flashing lights coming from the monitor next to her head and Alaska screwed her eyes shut at the sudden brightness. At that exact moment her body decided to betray her and she started coughing, bending over to catch some air.

The silence was deafening. “Alaska, what the hell?” Willam didn’t seem amused as she sprang to Alaska’s bedside, silencing the monitor and grabbing the nose canula Alaska had taken off. With some difficulty she managed to push it back under Alaska’s nose and helped her sit up to take a few breaths. It was only then that they noticed the blood pouring out of the open i.v. line. Willam scrambled to reconnect it to the infusion while Alaska leaned back against headrest of the bed, tears from both coughing too much and being overwhelmed by everything that had happened running over her cheeks.

Willam seemed at loss for words. She looked like she was considering whether to scream at Alaska for doing stupid stuff and comfort the crying girl. After a moment she leaned in and hugged Alaska awkwardly. “You’re an idiot.” She said softly. “What were you even trying to do.”

Between sobs Alaska answered. “I need to use the toilet and take my contacts out and… breath. I hate this!” She took another deep breath while Willam watched the saturation curve dip downwards. With a frown she turned up the oxygen flow and waited for Alaska to calm down again. The door of the room opened and a nurse barged in, but carefully backed back out when she saw that Willam had everything under her control. After a few deep breaths Alaska spoke again, her voice sounding weaker than before. “Can you help me, Bill?”

The trip to the bathroom had taken almost all energy Alaska had left.

“Do you want to change?” Willam waved a hand at Alaska’s scrubs she was still wearing. “I brought some of your clothes.”

“Can I have a small break?” Alaska asked weakly, not capable of sitting upright any longer. She slouched against the headrest and closed her eyes, focusing on taking deep breaths in between small coughs.

“Sure.” Willam sounded a bit insecure. Being a surgeon, caring for sick and feverish people wasn’t exactly up her alley. She shuffled back to the chair and watched Alaska’s breathing slowly even out a bit. When she met her eyes again, Willam unpacked one of the sweatshirts and a pair of loose pants and handed them to Alaska.

“Do you need help?” A bright blush lightened up Alaska’s cheeks as she nodded shily. Withing seconds Willam had her out of her scrubs and helped her pull the shirt over her messed up hair. The rim got caught on Alaska’s shoulder, but after a short struggle she was finally able to lie back down.

“You should go home. I’ll be fine. And you’ll have to work tomorrow.” She whispered. “I’ll just sleep for some time.”

“Good morning, sunshine!” Alaska groaned at the light that assaulted her eyes through her half-closed eyelids. The night hadn’t been the best, but in the early hours she had finally managed to fall asleep. She was happy to find that she wasn’t struggling was much with breathing as in the night, but the coughs had been getting worse.

Katya, who had been the one to pull open the curtains, stepped over to her bed. “How are you feeling?”

Alaska coughed, then yawned. “Slightly less shitty. But still not very alive.”

“Well, living hurts.” Katya gave her a grim smile. “I’m here to examine you. Any new symptoms?”

She had switched to doctor mode and Alaska groaned. She knew Katya was an amazing doctor, but being on the receiving end rather than just watching wasn’t something she had ever wanted to experience.

“My chest hurts.” She admitted. Katya’s eyebrows raised in what looked like a slightly worried expression. Without further ado she pulled back the covers and started listening to Alaska’s chest. Alaska froze as the chest piece touched her bare breasts. Willam had taken off her bra in the night to make her more comfortable, but right now she wished she hadn’t. Now Katya was basically groping her breasts and she felt her breath hitch as her hand touched one of her areolas. Katya froze, a bright pink blush spreading over her face, but tried to remain professional.

“I don’t think you have pneumonia, but we should take an x-ray later just to make sure.” She looked at Alaska’s chart in her hands. “At least your fever has come down. It spiked during the night, but you’re not too hot right now.”

Alaska wasn’t sure if that was a good thing, especially the comment about her apparent lack of hotness.

“You have some committed roommates.” Katya commented while busying herself with filling in numbers in Alaska’s chart.

Alaska smiled. “They are something. But amazing.” And somehow her feverish brain decided to add. “And they really should have realized by now that I won’t care if they finally fucked. Watching that mutual pining is exhausting.”

To her surprise Katya started laughing loudly. “I should have filmed this and send it to them.” She commented after a catching her breath again. “I’m sure they’d enjoy hearing the T from delirious and truthful Alaska.”

“Don’t!” Alaska’s voice hitched with repressed panic. Katya only laughed, shook her head and left the room, not willing to take that fear from Alaska.

She later returned with a slightly mushy blueberry muffin (“You’re thin enough as it is!”) and Alaska wondered, if maybe she didn’t hate her that much. Maybe everything was going to turn out better than she had anticipated.


	2. Chapter 2

Part 2

If someone had asked Courtney Act to describe her perfect Saturday, it would have looked like this: Sleeping in. Having a nice, healthy breakfast with her housemates. Meeting some friends at the shopping mall for lunch. Going for a run in the afternoon. Cooking some nice dinner with her housemates (or rather for her housemates, since Willam was very good at eating, but not so much at cooking and Alaska would survive on a diet of coffee and pasta (every three days, when she found the motivation to cook) if she was left to her own, so it was usually Courtney, who was responsible for the food). Watching a nice movie and taking the chance to snuggle up on Willam. Fall asleep on her lap and get woken by Willam trying to carry her to bed (This had happened before and it had been hilarious, also, it was probably the reason for this stupid crush she had on her housemate).

Today was not her perfect Saturday. She had been woken up by her alarm set to pick Alaska up from hospital, had to listen to Katya’s monologue about how she should care for her still quite sick friend and now was cooking something that Alaska would be able to stomach. While she didn’t mind caring for her friend, she still felt a bit scared of the responsibility dumped of her. Willam had to work during the day and would only finish at around six in the evening, so Courtney was responsible for everything and even though she knew that no one would care if they had to order takeaway, she still took some pride in being able to present Willam with a homecooked meal after a long day of work. Now she also had to look after Alaska, who looked rather dead and pale when Courtney had picked her up from hospital. She had clung onto her rather heavily during the short walk to her room and had looked like she’d never be able to get back up again after lying down, her face almost as pale as her crisp white sheets. Courtney really didn’t feel safe leaving her on her own like this, but she also had to take care of all of the housework plus the food.

The last time she had checked on Alaska, she had been asleep, her breath still coming in labored gasps, but Katya had told her that Alaska was well enough to return home and she trusted Katya’s opinion. After all, she had spent a lot of time at Alaska’s bedside, half of the time while Alaska was asleep and didn’t even know, the suspected hatred she had for Alaska nowhere near visible.

Still, Courtney had set herself an alarm to check on her every thirty minutes, to make sure Alaska didn’t die on her. She knew that it was stupid, but her mind kept replaying pictures from Alaska in her hospital bed, gasping for air and it had quite frankly terrified her. It almost seemed normal if it was just any regular patient, but the patient being her friend had hit quite close to home.

While her thoughts circled around her, she set to fry the onions.

She had decided to make some mild curry for them and was chopping some zucchini when she heard a small cough from the entrance of the kitchen.

“Alaska, what are you doing out of bed?” She cried out when she spotted the sick blonde leaned against the door frame.

“It’s boring and I felt lonely.” Alaska replied, her voice still thick with exhaustion. She was swaying slightly on the spot and without a second thought Courtney dropped the knife and hurried over to her side to help her to the couch, making sure that Alaska didn’t have the chance to faint. She was leaning heavily on her, making Courtney question again whether it had been a good idea to already discharge her. Maybe she should call Katya, the Russian had given her her phone number for that purpose after all. And for sending updates about Alaska’s condition, a fact her friend didn’t know about.

“I’m sorry.” She muttered as Courtney dropped her on the couch and helped her lie down, carefully lifting up her legs and helping her settling under the blanket she had snatched from the basket beside the couch. It was a light beige color, but only accentuated the pale tinge of Alaska’s face. Courtney ran a hand over her forehead, frowning at the warmth she found, but smiled as she addressed her friend. “I’ll get you some tea and ibuprofen.” Alaska was already nodding off again. Small coughs were shaking her body every few seconds and Courtney stood and watched for a few minutes before going to boil the water for the tea.

It was only then that she noticed the burning smell coming from her pot and cursed. She had forgotten about the onions she had been frying. With a sigh she scraped them out of the pot and set to cut new ones. At some point the water started boiling and Courtney dropped the knife to make the tea. Her parents had sent her some herbal tea a few weeks ago when she had been sick with a regular cold, so she had just the right tea for Alaska now. She was pretty certain that Alaska was not a tea kind of person, but didn’t care. It was supposed to work wonders for sick people and Courtney herself was the living example for the curative powers of the beverage.

She returned to chopping up the onions. Tears were clouding her vision and Courtney sighed, wiping them with the back of her hand, which proved to be a very bad idea. It only worsened the sting in her eyes, but the fastest thing was to just get this over with. She closed her eyes for a second and set to continue cutting up the malicious vegetable, when a bright pain clouded her vision once again.

Through her tears she could see red liquid spreading all over the cutting bord in front of her and she cried out as she realized that she had just severed the tip of her left middle finger.

“Oh, fuck! Shit!” She groaned, crouching down and burring her clenched-up hand in her lap, blood slowly dripping to the floor. Now she was crying for real. This was so stupid! How could something this dumb happen to her? She looked at her finger, covered in blood and black spots began to dance in front of her vision. She knew that she had to stop the bleeding, but was sure that she would pass out, if she tried to get up now. Why hadn’t she paid more attention? She was silently sobbing, her eyes closed to shut out the world. She had to pull herself together, she had to get up, stop the bleeding, call Willam and take care of her wound. She had to make sure Alaska was safe and all the responsibilities were overwhelming. Blood was pooling in her hand, overflowing and covering everything in the red, sticky liquid.

Alaska’s hands prying open her clenched fist were surprisingly cold. A towel was pressed against her finger and painful sparks erupted behind her eyes. She whimpered involuntarily. Between clenched teeth she muttered. “I’m fine! Don’t mind me.”

“You’re not. You’re hurt.” Alaska’s voice was thick with worry and exhaustion. “You need to go to the hospital.”

She had a strong grip on the towel now covering Courtney’s bloodied fingers and seemed like she had the situation under control. Courtney knew that she was only acting strong. The fingers around her hand were cold and shaking slightly, but heat was radiating from her body, indicating that her fever was still rising. “I’ll call Willam!” Alaska decided and, leaning against the kitchen cupboard, tried to push herself up. She managed to stand for the blink of an eye, then her knees buckled and she collapsed against the cupboard, pulling the cutting board with her when she tried to catch her fall on the counter.

If Courtney hadn’t been in that much pain, she would have laughed. They surely were a sight to behold- her bleeding, Alaska white as a sheet and both of them covered in blood and onions.

“Are you ok?” Courtney asked, fear and worry for her friend overshadowing the pain pulsing through her hand. Alaska was coughing harshly, but nodded, waving one hand at Courtney. She was slowly folding in on herself, as if sitting upright was already costing her too much energy. Sadly, though, Courtney could do nothing to help her. She was still covered in blood, her finger throbbing and keeping her from even thinking about using her hand. The most important thing right now was to get help and although she hated the thought, calling Willam was probably the best idea.

“I’ll be right back!” Courtney said, trying to keep the quiver out of her voice. But before she could exit the kitchen, both of them could hear voices in front of the door and then a key being turned. Willam was still talking to someone behind her when she opened the door to the kitchen and froze, as she took in the sight before her.

“Courtney? What the hell is going on?”

Courtney started crying. The person behind Willam had stepped past her and hurried to Alaska’s side, helping her sit back up, while Willam still stared at Courtney in disbelief.

“I’m sorry!” Courtney bawled, pressing her injured hand to her chest and finally Willam seemed to notice. Within a split second she had grabbed Courtney’s hand and unwrapped the towel. She pulled in the air between her teeth.

“That’ll need stitches.” Even though she was keeping her cool, Courtney could hear the worry infused in her voice and it made her heart skip a beat. This crush was stupid, but sent her heart soaring every time Willam touched her.

“Katya?” Finally, Courtney recognized the person kneeled next to Alaska. “I’ll take Court to the hospital. Will you be ok?”

Katya nodded and returned her attention to the sick girl in front of her. With a weak voice Alaska chimed in. “I’m ok. Please take care of Courtney first!”

The last thing Courtney saw while Willam guided her out of the kitchen was the light smack Katya gave her on her head.

“I’m so sorry!” Courtney was still crying, while Willam drove them to the hospital, her teeth clenched shut. She kept her eyes on the road and Courtney could see the tension lines on her face. She felt incredibly stupid and extremely unattractive and the mere thought of Willam hating her kept the tears falling. Willam didn’t answer.

Then, about five minutes later, while they were waiting at a red light, she finally turned to face Courtney. The look on her face was surprisingly gentle. “You’ll be ok.” She answered and returned her attention to the road.

They reached the ER about ten minutes later and instead of waiting for a doctor to see her, Willam pulled her along to an empty treatment room.

“I hope you’re fine with me stitching you up.” She had her back turned to Courtney, while she collected surgical instruments from the shelf in front of her. “You can take the towel off now. I’ll first have to clean the wound.” She carefully inspected the deep cut now overflowing with blood again.

Seeing the amount of blood, Courtney felt her knees go weak again, but before she could react, Willam had her lie down on the treatment table and lifted up her legs to increase the blood flow to her head.

“Don’t pass out on me!” She exclaimed, her voice quite sharp and Courtney squeezed her eyes shut in an attempt to keep the tears from falling. It was stupid. It was just a minor cut, but here she was- almost passing out and unable to stop crying. Suddenly, a gloved hand was placed on her cheek and Courtney opened her eyes to look into Willam’s face.

“Are you ok? I promise it’ll all be fine.” Willam’s voice was surprisingly soft. She sat down on the chair next to the treatment table and gently took Courtney’s hand into her own.

“I’ll start with local anesthesia, so you don’t have to feel a thing.” She carefully cleaned the base of her finger and swiftly injected some local anesthetic into the skin, then continued to hold Courtney’s hand, rubbing small circles on the back with her thumb.

“Can you feel this?” She touched the fingertip with forceps. Still unable to answer, Courtney only shook her hand and shakily wiped at her face with the other hand to keep the tears from falling.

“I’ll first clean it and then put it back together.” While tending to the wound, Willam kept a steady string of words running, so Courtney could concentrate on something besides her injury. It took Willam only five minutes to have the injury stitched back together and all wrapped up.

“You did good.” She smiled at Courtney and helped her sit back up again. “Let’s go home.” Willam placed a hand on Courtney’s lower back and helped her get off the treatment table and when she was standing, surprisingly wrapped her into a big hug.

“Seriously, Court.” Willam huffed into her hair, pulling her close. “You almost gave me a heart attack. Don’t do that again! I was really worried.”

With a sigh Courtney buried her face in the crook of Willam’s neck and inhaled deeply. The scent was actually quite comforting, she mused. And while her finger was still throbbing a little, she started to feel the adrenaline slowly leave her blood stream. Just standing here, wrapped in Willam’s arms felt incredibly safe. Then another thought hit her.

“Alaska!” She gasped, freeing herself from Willam, but her friend only pulled her close again.

“…Will be fine. Katya is taking care of her.”

When Courtney looked up, she met Willam’s eyes and before she even knew what was happening, soft lips caught hers and Willam kissed her like it was the most natural thing to do.

Parting again, both froze, until Courtney leaned upwards and placed another kiss on Willam’s lips.

* * *

“What the hell is going on?” Katya demanded to know, while she helped Alaska, who was covered in blood and onions, sit.

“Courtney hurt herself.” Alaska explained, but before she could continue, another coughing fit overtook her and she was having some difficulties to stay upright despite Katya’s help. It sucked to be sick and it sucked even worse not to be able to help a friend. 

“I saw.” Katya retaliated. “But she’s fine. Meanwhile you are not.”

“She’s not fine.” Alaska rasped. “She’s at the hospital.”

“I’m this close to taking you back there, too!” Katya held her fingers about a quarter inch apart, her voice very punctuated. Without further discussion she pulled Alaska upright and swung her arm over her shoulder, before dragging her over to the sofa.

“Seriously,” Katya continued. “You collapsed, can’t even walk on your own and you’re burning up.” As if to prove her last point, she placed her flat hand on Alaska’s forehead and clicked her tongue.

“Do you know where you keep the thermometer and the Advil?” She asked, looking around in the room, her hand still firmly planted on Alaska’s forehead. Before Alaska could even answer, she spotted a small red bag on the coffee table and turned to examine its contents. Soon enough she seemed to have found what she was looking for and handed Alaska a thermometer.

“Take your temperature and if it is above 104°F or doesn’t go down after taking this, we’ll go back to the hospital.” Katya held up her fist, containing two tablets of Advil. While Alaska placed the thermometer under her tongue, slightly worried that her return back home would be short lived, but mostly exhausted, Katya made her way to the kitchen and filled a glass with tap water before returning to Alaska’s side. With a crooked smile Alaska presented the thermometer to her. “It’s not 104°F.”

The thermometer was displaying the numbers 103.8°F. Katya sighed and handed Alaska the tablets. And even though Alaska felt a little victorious, she still felt like she had disappointed Katya somehow. After Alaska had finished her water, Katya took the glass from her and returned to the kitchen. Through half lidded eyes Alaska watched her starting to clean up the mess she and Courtney had made, but soon enough she felt the exhaustion overtake her and fell into a peaceful slumber.

“Wake up.” A hand was shaking her awake and with a groan Alaska opened her eyes, blinking against the warm light of the evening sun. Wordlessly Katya handed her the thermometer and Alaska placed it under her tongue. She was still a bit disoriented from her short nap, but slowly everything started coming back to her.

“Ish Courtney ‘ack?” She mumbled around the thermometer blocking her tongue. “No talking!” Katya pressed her index finger against Alaska’s lips and the sick girl froze. A furious blush was creeping up on her face as she realized that her lips were touching Katya. But before she could think of a way to react (and hide her own involuntary reaction), the thermometer beeped and Katya removed it before Alaska even had the chance to look at it.

“That’s it.” Katya sighed. “We’re going back. Not necessarily to stay, if your blood oxygen levels are fine, but I want an X-ray of your chest. The fever is not coming down and I’m afraid of a bacterial superinfection.”

Alaska hated the feeling creeping up in her. She hated the lectures, Katya telling her stuff she already knew. It made her feel small, weak and incompetent, three feelings she absolutely despised.

“Do you have a car? I got a ride with Willam here and I don’t want to wait until they are back.” Katya asked, while busying herself with collecting stuff they might need. She handed Alaska her jacket, that was a little short on the arms, but Alaska put it on anyways, secretly inhaling Katya’s scent clinging to the jacket. And even though she hated to admit it- Katya might be right about her catching pneumonia on top of influenza, her coughs had been getting gradually worse throughout the day and her fever had been rising despite it usually subsiding around day 5 in normal influenza cases. It sucked to know so much about diseases. If only she could just ignore it, but she also knew, that pneumonia just didn’t magically go away, so the only way to find out was returning to the hospital and that sucked. She was fighting back her tears when Katya returned from her search for Alaska’s car keys.

“Come on, up you go.” Katya slung one of her arms over her shoulder and helped her stand slowly. Alaska was leaning heavily on Katya and although she wouldn’t admit it, was thankful for all the help the Russian was offering. It was still a miracle to her, that her co-worker, who hated her so much, cared that much and before she could stop herself, she blurted out. “Why are you even helping me?”

Katya froze and Alaska felt like that had been the worst thing to ask right now. She should just accept the help and not question it, but the question had been nagging her for quite some time. The fever seemed to have lowered the barrier between thinking and talking.

“Because I’m worried.” Katya was avoiding her eyes, a faint blush covering her cheeks and Alaska was amazed how just one simple sentence could throw her off like this.

“But you hate me.” Alaska blurted out, her brain telling her to stop, but now she had already started. She might as well continue. Katya turned around and helped Alaska sit again, before taking a seat beside her, as if she was prepared for a lengthy lecture. She sighed and then stayed silent for a moment.

“I don’t hate you. Actually, quite the opposite. But I know that you don’t like me.” Her voice was surprisingly soft, which threw Alaska off for a second, but her anger and humiliation got the better of her.

“You do everything to show me that I’m an inferior doctor.” Alaska felt tears constrict her throat, but continued anyways. If this was the time to put everything she felt into words, she would.

“You are perfect. A beautiful, young doctor, adored by patients and superiors alike. You don’t make mistakes and when I do, it’s always you to correct them. When I do something wrong, you know it better. When I don’t know what to do, you do. And I hate how much it affects me. I know it’s not a competition, but it just makes me feel so small and even though you do all that, I still think you’re probably the most attractive person in the entire hospital, but if you knew about my crush, you’d probably also use that against me.” Oh, shit. She hadn’t meant to tell her _that_ much.

Katya had listened to her short monologue patiently, not even interrupting her when Alaska had to pause when another coughing fit overtook her. But after she finished, she looked away and Alaska knew that she had blown it. Tears were clouding her vision and she had started shaking, her breaths coming in small gasps between repeated coughing fits. Katya’s face had taken on an expression Alaska couldn’t place and she only wanted to run away and hide, but her body was betraying her and wouldn’t move.

And then Katya leaned forward and kissed her. The world stood still.

They were interrupted by another coughing fit and Alaska turned away, completely overwhelmed. This was the worst and the best fever dream she had ever had.

“Look at me.” Katya had taken her chin into her hand and carefully turned Alaska’s head to face her again.

“I don’t hate you. I might also have a crush on you. And…” She sighed and barked out a laugh. “The reason why I know so much more is that I’m in my third year of residency and you only just started, stupid.” She placed a hand on Alaska’s head and ruffled her hair. Alaska wasn’t able to reply anything, still completely overwhelmed by the situation. Out of all outcomes of this, she had never expected Katya to like her back. She had been so stupid and somehow still done the right thing.

And then it all went down again. She bent over, coughing, not getting enough air and felt the comforting presence by her side disappear. She was panicking. She felt like she was swinging between extremes. Happiness and pure horror, fear, being accepted and then being rejected again and…

Katya took her hands. “Breath.” And Alaska did.

When she had calmed down again, Katya got up. “Let’s go.” She helped Alaska to the car and into the passenger seat, leaned over her to buckle her seatbelt and when she leaned back, ghosted her lips over Alaska’s forehead. Alaska smiled weakly, the whole situation, her illness and the emotional rollercoaster she had been riding, had deeply exhausted her and she closed her eyes when Katya started the car.

Katya ended up getting a wheelchair for the way from the car to the emergency room, Alaska’s legs were shaking too much for her to even think of walking. She hated the feeling of being that weak. She had only just left the hospital in the morning, feeling better, but now she felt even worse than she had before.

Katya hooked her up on the saturation monitor, but seemed happy enough with the numbers displayed, then drew some blood and escorted Alaska to the radiology department to take an X-ray of her chest. Alaska was way too exhausted to even register half of the stuff done with her. Somewhere along the process Courtney and Willam had shown up in the cubicle she was laying in, the two of them holding hands and Alaska smiled. It seemed like she wasn’t the only one who put her feelings into words that day.

“How’s the hand?” She asked, eying the white bandage on Courtney’s hand.

“Better.” Courtney was leaning into Willam’s side, who had an arm placed around her back, the hand resting on Courtney’s ass. If she had felt better, Alaska would have totally called her out, but for the moment she was just happy for them to finally see what she had noticed long ago. At some point Katya returned and started talking to Willam in a hushed voice, but when she noticed Alaska watching her, she smiled. Then she turned to Alaska, resting a hand on her head and started toying with her hair.

“You really don’t do anything half way, do you?” She asked, but Alaska could feel the warmth in her voice. “Influenza A, B, pneumonia…” She sighed and wiped away the tears escaping from Alaska’s eyes with her thumb.

“But your oxygen saturation is fine, so we’ll treat that at home.”

A few hours later, Alaska was back on the couch. Katya had started her on antibiotics and then decided to stay for the night to watch over her patient. Willam had taken over cooking under Courtney’s watchful eye and soon enough the delicious scent of homemade curry filled the living room.

“So…” Alaska asked, drawling on the words, as she watched Willam play with Courtney’s hair. They had all moved to the couch after dinner, Alaska’s head resting on Katya’s lap. “What’s going on between the two of you?” Both Willam and Courtney blushed furiously and didn’t answer, so Alaska continued. “Have you finally realized that those feelings were mutual?”

Beet red in the face, Courtney retorted. “What about you and your co-worker, who hates you _sooo much_?” Alaska smiled. “Turns out she doesn’t.” It came surprisingly easy to her to accept how much her relationship with Katya had turned in the last hours. Katya bent down and placed a kiss on Alaska’s forehead, then winked at Willam. Willam stuck out her tongue and turned to Courtney, grabbing her chin and kissing her on the lips.

Alaska started laughing which soon enough turned into coughing and Katya helped her sit up. With a playfully hurt tone she turned to the others. “Don’t make her laugh, she could die from it.” And while the other three girls kept bickering, Alaska closed her eyes and smiled. Life could be so much worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I ended up writing a second part. There is a bit more of Witney in this... I hope you enjoyed it. I'm sorry for all mistakes I made.  
> And I'm always thankful for comments/kudos etc.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my very first RPDR fanfic- any feedback is very welcome :)  
> I'm a sucker for sickfics, so I decided to add one myself. I'm sorry if I messed up the characters.  
> Usually influenza doesn't progress this fast, I sped it up for the sake of the story. Some parts come from my own experiences as a junior doctor. I'm ignoring Covid for this one...  
> This work stands on its own, but I might add to it later, depending on the reception and if I find the time (starting a new job on Monday...)  
> Oh, and English isn't my first language, so I apologize for any mistakes or awkward sentences...


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